Maine Striper Fishing Reports

Spent the last few days fishing Lefty Krey, what a hoot!!! the passion this 84 year old man has for fishing mixed in the casting skill and wow what a great opportunity for learning!!! I took full advantage of it!!! we put some more days on the books for next year and some good photos to follow soon...

Trucker Hats,Flex Fit,Knit Beenies and long sleeve t's are in,

A mixed bag of good fishing has continued the last few weeks, tides and sun have been key to choosing what you like and where to fish, I have been lucky to have some anglers with a solid back ground in sight-fishing one just moved up from Islamarda to Maine full time and we are having a blast!!! he went 11 cast 9 fish on the sand flats with a small crab pattern this week, So if it's sunny we are on the sand, many trips this week started of first light on the mud flats on Casco Bay and then we are jumping in my car with a smaller skiff in tow to chase the sun on the sand flats or a couple of tides we hit the carp flats,any way you look at we are having fun!!! but anglers who are into numbers the first light bite on Casco Bay has been a good producer for most, I really like the tides the next few days for the mud flats but the wind forecast sucks let's hope they are wrong!!!! Fly wise on mud first light small black hollows or Tabory snake style in the 3-5 inch have work well, on the sand we have had a some luck with some small white or lighter color hollows for smaller fish, but most anglers I am fishing can throw a crab on the longer leader so that's been the weapon of choice,
Lot's of bait every where other then a few spots where the big blues came in a did a job on it real quick, that was some fast pace fishing and we had our first 3 doz fish day years but 65% where blues and not all on the flats tons of fun anyhow,There are some large schools of little 14-18 inch bass around but not as many as we would like. The Bait is here, fish are here, we will start to see them schooling up over the next few weeks before the real surface show starts to go in mid Sept, I have a feeling we are in for a good fall, I will post some photos from this up coming week I have a feeling most all of you will recognize the angler I'm fishing with unless you live in a cave. long sleeve T-shirts and hats are in stock drop a email if your interested.

Maine Striper fishing Reports

Yesterday I spent the day sight fishing the sand flats with the Ryan Davey founding Partner of Angling exploration Group who brought us the trout fishing cult classic Trout bum Diaries, he has a new team working on a film called (In-between the lines), the story of striped bass. Together with Justin Durance these fish heads not only have an eye for filming but they can fish!!!the sun came out for us and we where able to feed some nice fish a few crab patterns and get it on film http://www.striperfilm.com/ others featured in the movie include Lefty Kreh, Lou Tabory, Brad Burns Dave Skok and many more, I'll update with a trailer later in the fall with info on the release of the film.Today was spent on the mud flats with an angler in his mid 80's and still casting 60 plus ft on command we boated a nice fish off the mud in about 2 ft of water and the smile and thanks he give every fish is contagious!!!. The fish have been much more snappy the last few days and I'm looking forward to getting past such a quick tide swing as the flats swap out quickly on these new moon tides! Bait wise welcome the peanut bunker back it's has been fun to see some bigger Blue fish around as well some huge Bass witch comes to a large dead bass left at the boat ramp last week I took a tape to her and it was 51 inches cleaned and the real shit was across the channel, I came across a bunch more we decided to measure those to kill our curiosity they went 32 36 and 37 WTF!!!!

Average size crab eating bass off the sand flats this past week,

Well get out and enjoy yourself there are plenty to catch and looking forward I have a feeling we just might see some good fall fishing!!! and check out this great event happening in a few week a way to win some cash fishing and raise some money for a great cause.




See the link on the top of the page for more detail on the 2010 Catch and Release tournament....










Coastal Fly Angler
T-Shirts and Hats are In!!!!!!!

Maine Striper Fishing Reports

A few years back I ran into the Eldredge fly shop on my way to Cape Cod, I left my fly box on the counter after showing some patterns I had been working on, continued to do some tying material shopping and after a conversation of different bait that had been showing in the waters I checked out. Well I open the box on my skiff to find a bunch of shelled peanuts to fall to the deck,Ha Ha?? the was point was don't forget about peanut bunker, well after a few years of a no shows they came into Casco Bay thick this week and with them some bigger bass and blues!!! the problem is they are holding to one hell of a weed line and the area that we are getting shots at surface feeding fish you catch more floating eel grass than anything Else, witch has me hoping for bright sun so I can fish the sand flats and stop worrying about those fish in the weed area until it cleans up with a good wind or a bigger tides like ones coming up next week,the weeds have been a issue in parts of the bay sense the last new moon tides. Bait wise we have plenty as well there are lots of well fed bass around the bay and for the first time in about a month got into some small bass for a few days, good to see! got our first small group of blues about two weeks ago so be ready with bite tippet and some small peanut patterns thing could become very fun around here even in this heat!!!

Maine Striper Fishing Reports and Trips

The last few days I have been doing some work with Confluence films and there Follow up to the movies Drift and Rise,A quick fishing report the fish have been coming to a black snake or hollow pattern on the mud and the EP Fiber crab still wins on the sand flats,Leader or tippet must go down on the sand we have been fishing pretty light to get the eat, The fish seem to be getting a little more snappy on the cooler mornings, seeing lots of fish in all sizes but getting the eat was a little tough during the up and down weather, and shifty winds,The weather seems a little bit more stable so we might have a better bite this weekend and there has been some small blitzs happening around the area, have fun out there!!!!

Maine Striper Fishing Reports and Guided Trips

Thing are really turning back around in Casco Bay, it's was not a lack of fish that had us frustrated it was a combination of really warm humid nights keeping the water temps high on the mud flats and with the big tides and a good swell the grass lines on the outside islands was almost impossible to get a clean retrieve, the real frustrations was we where and still are seeing lots of fish on the sand flats, we just could not get a clean shot until the last few tides, it looks like some of the grass got push onto shore and will be staying there for a few days at this point hopefully more. Fish wise, i'm herng some good report coast-wide other than the beach angler they are having a real tough time, fishing these water temps and with the big tides last week the beach guys had a real short window on the incoming tide, witch hands down is fish much better then a dropping. Boats anglers in Casco Bay had some good reports, the fly guys that where using there fly line to get under the weeds seemed to be happier than the spin who just took a few days of due to the floating grass mess!!, Started getting broke off by blues this past weekend and some came to the boat with some size, 10 lb range.

I also fished the sand flats S of Portland with the little skiff had a few tides that the weeds where just as bad, but saw lots of fish moving over the sand we had a few hr period with tons of shots at 30 inch plus fish on the sand we boated a few
on a small olive crab,There is plenty of ait and fish around work the bottom of the outgoing and the first 5 ft of incoming tides hard, thing really slow down when the tide starts to swamp out. The Kennebec guys are reporting some good angling a few have turned over to fishing deeper with live bait if that your thing you will most likely do well, a few guys have reported some good fishing on the flats, but like ours being there at the right tide is key!!! Just got areport fro J Ford who was tuna fishing today saw lot of fish mostly large but the guys are reporting catching lots!!!!! of bass in there trolling rigs 3-7 miles offshore and mostly big 20 plus pound fish .

Long Sleeve T shirt are ready please call or email if your are interested Hats will be next week!!!



The rest of the week, I will be working with confluence films on there follow up to Rise and Drift, hope to represent our fishing well but also provide a voice for some of the issue we face with the fishery!!! On that note while we where running in today I saw a buddy poling a flat that been pretty warm up until the last day or two, with water temps in the lower to mid sixties the fishing really turned on for him, but he came off while i was washing down my skiff to show a few photos of a fish that concerned him, It look like Mycobacteriosis by what i understand the fish who have this witch is many can really flare up in the warm waters, please take note of the water temps and if you feel it safe for the fish for quick photo please send it to Bruce Joule at Maine's DMR

bruce.joule@maine.gov

Maine Striper Fishing Reports and Guided Trips

Worm Hatch Has started!!!!!


Here is our new skiff!! 750 lb with power floats skinny and poles great, Perfect for the Sand Flats and chasing tailing Carp on the mud, Just had a few days open up July 10 and 12 also the 18-21,And a few opening for Aug left as well. 207-671-4330



Warm water and high tides. Just the right combination for a worm "hatch" in the Nor'east. before you know it, the water rushing out of estuaries and off the mud flats is in the high 60-70 degree range. That's warm enough to give marine worms a nudge.

""Worm Next To a size 4 Merkin Crab""
Next New Moon July 11
Water Temp 68 This could be good!!!!

There not much that can pull bass away from so much food they have in the cool water on the outter island of Casco Bay other than when the water temperatures around Casco Bay push into the mid and high 60s, and we have moon tides, the worm "hatch" season is in full swing for us.
Worm "hatch" is really a misnomer. These wigglers aren't morphing the way insects do. In fact, the event isn't a "hatch" at all, but a spawn when sexually active sea worms do, indeed, change shape and coloration.

When Nature comes a knockin' on the worm hole door, spring tides are like Bolero for the worms, but spawning swarms need not be confined to those days just before, during and after a full or new moon. It can happen at almost any time, so Nor'east Saltwater fly rodders should make it a point to carry at least a few cinderworm patterns from now through September.



In general, the worms are red with one light-colored end, but colors can shift from location to location.

I'm not a biologist, so I'm not even going to try to identify all of these varieties, but in his book, A Fly-Fisher's Guide to Saltwater Naturals and their Imitations,George V. Roberts, Jr. classifies them as the genus Nereis. He says the species include all of our names for marine worms: cinderworms, mussel worms, pileworms, sandworms and bloodworms. Whether or not cinderworm is an actual species or simply a nickname still escapes me. If anyone has a definitive answer, please let me know.

For most fly rodders, it's enough to know that the worms are there and when they are, striped bass usually aren't far away.

A worm swarm to a school of stripers is like a Free Lunch sign to a Hockey team. Stripers gather at the mouth of an estuary or any outflow where worms are active and start to binge.

The worms are fairly easy pickin's as they are swept along by the outgoing tide, but they are not at the total mercy of the current. Part of the spawning transformation is the growth of paddle-like appendages, again along the rear of the worm. It helps to help propel them toward the surface, so they're actually coming at us tail first in an effort to create more worms. This is why we mistakenly refer to the "tail" as the "head," if, indeed, the distinction has any significance, except to another worm. Though the worms may appear to be trapped in a current, they are actually wiggling their way up and your presentation should try to duplicate this movement.

True. The stripers are feeding on the surface. That much is evident from all the slurping that goes on during a swarm, but you need not rely solely on a floating line. Actually, an Intermediate line is can be a better choice, mostly because of its significantly smaller diameter which is less likely to be effected by the current. Clear fly lines may also be a plus,On the mud flat in Casco Bay I use Floating lines 90 % of the time but what seems to work best is a slightly longer leader than what Nor'east Saltwater fly rodders might normally use, a twitching presentation and a little bit of luck. Don't overburden the presentation with a heavy pound-test tippet, either. Keep it at 12 and under.

Bear in mind, too, that these worms don't have the power to propel themselves home again. After the worms spawn, they die and the incoming water gently delivers next year's worm swarm home, so fly fishing on the outgoing beach side of an outflow can often be productive, too.

It is not uncommon to find a worm swarm in the somewhat gentler currents of a harbor, particularly one that has rich wetlands at its head. In this case, plan on working the shoreline all the way to the mouth of the harbor, keeping in mind that it will take a little longer for the worms to be swept to your location. Such situations may also send somewhat of a warm swarm along an adjacent, open-water beach front.

Have fun and tell them you might be late for work on Monday and Tuesday next week.

Maine Striper Fishing Reports and Guided Trips

Crab Size that has been working for us, 12 ft leader down to 10 lb!!

Well, if you judge a fishery on opportunities this is nuts how many nice fish are in Casco Bay or all Maine's striper waters right now!!!! But getting the eat has been a little bit of chasing an early start, tides and reading the fish. The later being the most difficult if you are fishing from shore or a noisy boat, simply the fish don't need to eat our flies they really don't need to waste energy chasing our flies, they have all they need and can eat when ever they want. But they are stripers and there are always a few who are a little more snappy, one thing that has been consistent for us is not to throw a the big groups, I know it hard to reframe from doing so, but those fish are social and read off any nervous energy from the group, Read my last post on the Green merkin crab it has been our best producer for the last 2 weeks followed by a small olive sand eel pattern I tie with Finish Racoon. WE are targeting tides and sun angles for sight fishing and missed a few of the early starts exchanging them for the sand on the incoming tides,and it paid off!!

Couple of things happening in Casco Bay that was frustrating anglers last week was the weed/grass floating everywhere, I here you, it took a few places holding tons of fish out of the picture, as you got very few clean retrieves - well the bait stuck to those weed lines during that period of nw wind and cooler nights and we found some real active feeds on the opposite shoreline, and had the place to ourselves for a few days So pay attention to the winds if it blows hard for a few days you may want to check out the down wind islands shoreline even if doesn't have structure your looking to fish, check it out it may hold fish for a few tides then go back to to there normal summer holding spots,

South - North
Reports from Dave Skok fishing Cape Ann area, like our lots of well feed Bass using the flats to lay up, his eats are coming on small patterns as well. he also reports there are tons of fish feeding a few miles off on large sand eel and the word is the fish seemed to be moving our way,When we talked today by PH he was stoked on the past great sight fishing days last week,,

The Kennebec guides are reporting some real good fishing, and it sounds like it holding up well in the evening as well, If you are looking to fish the Kennebec flats give Peter Fallon Call or if you are looking to fish the structure and rips try Capt Gorge Harris.

And finally the tidal Carp fishing has had a few moments for us as well, they like warm humid days, good timing on the tides has had us casting to tailing fish for a few hrs and 4 fish over 12 lbs to boat, Our new skiff is floating and poling well in 5 inches of water, is a dream for fishing the sand flats as well,

Casco Bay Striper Tournament
19th Annual Catch and Release Striper Tournament to be held on August 20-21st 2010.   Yarmouth Baot Yard will also be hosting a Captains Dinner on Friday night before the tournament.  This year YBY is proud to announce that L.L. Bean will be the corporate sponsor.
Tournament Prizes (For 2010)
Stripers/Bluefish

• 1st Place .......... $1,000 Cash
• 2nd Place ......... $500 Cash
• 3rd Place .......... $250 Cash
• 10th Place ........ $125
• 15th Place ........ $125
• 1st Place .......... $1,000 Cash
• 2nd Place ......... $500 Cash
• 3rd Place .......... $250 Cash
• 10th Place ........ $125
• 15th Place ........ $125
Fly Fishing-Stripers Only
• 1st Place .......... $750 Cash
• 2nd Place ......... $500 Cash
• 3rd Place .......... $250 Cash
• Slam ........ $250
• CCA Member Raffle



After years of customers asking for hats with my fly logo on it, we are now selling Hats T-Shirts and Buffs, and the fall blitz beenie, we should be all set for online orders in the next few weeks, drop us an email if your interested.

Open AM trips for July 18,19,20,21 Evening trips call 207-671-4330
Aug AM 4-7 13,14 19-20

Maine Striper Fishing Reports and Guided Fishing

The fish are really starting to spread out, and some are moving into there summer patterns, while others are still heading to the rivers for the bigger bait. There is lots of Blue Back Herring in the rivers now and the Juvi Herring and sand eels are making for some fun surface feeds around the bay if you hit it right!!!! timing has been key most of the week we have been meeting at the dock by 345-4 am the first light bite has been Best then the low incoming has been good. Thursday it just seemed as the fish just took the day off for us? goofy winds and big tides Fri was much much better. Post trip on Friday my wife and kids met me at the dock for a trip out to the beaches on the outer islands (See Photo above), I personally have not been able to fish much with my guide schedule, so when your wife says lets go and you have incoming tide, I was stoked to say the least!!!I was looking forward to trying out some crab patterns I have been working on and was hoping for some shots on the sand flats. The fish above was caught mid day in the bright sun on an olive EP fiber striper merkin a 12 ft leader and floating line my favorite setup for this style of fishing, I'm glad the crab has become more popular with anglers in the NE but it seems many have a hard time fishing it from a boat they just want to cast at every fish they see and strip away, for the most part that just spooks them while some of the beach anglers are doing well with bigger crab patterns fished real slow!!! hoping the fish comes to it. What we have been doing is a little more permit style and I'm lucky to have so many customer who also fish permit and Bonefish what we look for is a small group of fish on the sand that have seperated from the bigger 10 plus fish groups you spook one you may shut down your flat but 2-4 fish moving along they are not being so social with the others and are not playing follow the leader,often these are the one's we can get to eat, We are placing a small crab near that small group they will twitch and spook a little bit but as soon as they see a small crab droping one or more will come back, read the eat from there and good luck!! Being able to fish sand flats this way when you have the right tides and sun angles really makes Casco Bay such a cool fishery!!!!!There's only a hand full of polling skiffs in the bay that can really take advantage of fishing the sand flats the right way here in Maine so please remember guys and I see all the time a center counsel pulls in on the flat two anglers start pounding the water then then they start there motors up and leave without coming tight, just to screw up the flat for the walk wade anglers and the few skiffs guys that have spent the time dialing this style of fishing in Not Cool!!!! and Keep those trolling motor at slow speed on the sand they really do spook fish!!! PS start having wire with you those toothy guys are starting to show in the 6-8 lb size!!!

Some of the afterwork crew at the dock, where saying they had some slow fishing on Friday afternoon fishing near the flats on the incoming, Guys the mud was exposed to air temps up 85 and bright sun, hell yes the mud flats are going to be slow with those temps,even on a strong incoming tide.

Rumors have it the kennebec is holding up and fishing well into the mid day give it a try there are some guides up there with some open dates that can show you some great water befor the catch and kill season starts up there in July.


Open AM trips Thru July 15 th
June 27
July 3rd Half tide AM only
July 12
July 15

Maine Striper Fishing Reports and Guided Trips

Fish the tides!!!! It's been a first light or low incoming all week, this morning we changed it up from plugging away on the flats on the outgoing and it worked!!! we found some real bright fresh fish on the outer islands then we moved onto a big mud flat for the incoming and found fish waking and working the flat for a few hours and we where done around 11am with fish still showing. My angler today was Capt Robert Walczak from www.tarpontails.com it was the first time I met Rob who was up visiting his son at Camp Sunshine, I have herd a lot about his skills and his Tournament wins prove his guiding skills, Winning Guide FL keys Red Bone -Back-country Classic the list go on. If you are fishing out of Naples area look him up.




More Soon!!! I have only had few days off in the last three weeks and really need to spend some time at the tying bench,looking forward to the new skiff to show in the next 10 days, Suzki motor shortage put it behind about a month.

Open Days for June the 27th

Maine Striper Fishing Reports and Guided Trips

Bouncy weather and some soft tides slowed it down for a couple of days, but it's back on!!! the last few Mornings thing are kicking back into gear at full speed, there are tons of good reports coast wide!!!! Also with a swell in the water for a few days I was able to get a few standup paddle surf sessions in, post guide trips and areas just east of Casco Bay had a ton of fish on the surface in bright sun not and angler insight.so I would think the Kennebec crew will be in for some real hot fishing the next few days aswell. Fly wise 5-7 inch hollow purple was the fly of the day the last few mornings for us, there is a ton of Blue Back Herring in Casco Bay and with the rain and wind they are still out of the rivers in big schools, there is plenty in the rivers but the water quality is taking it's time from the weekends rains, the steeper tides that are setting in should speed that up over the next few days and we should be in for a good weekend of fishing, Fish the low sun angles and the tides (slack high has been slow!!




Bait wise have it all Small Juvi, Spike Mac. Adult herring sand eels and lot of Green crabs floating around to play with on the flats during slack high a slow strip might find an eat. Size wise the there still good groups of small fish but I would say most fish to the boat are in the 24-29 range with a few lower 30 mixed in. The aces fishing the rocks and beaches South of Portland report a few near 40 on the fly the last few days good job guys!!!! we still have not broke the 37 inch fish we got during the heat wave on a crab pattern but we are having a ton of fun working on it....

Hey Check out www.flyfishjeff.blogspot.com for some S Maine updates

Upen Dates for June 19th and 27th These are some good tides!!

Maine Striper fishing Reports and Guided Trips

THE FLATS COME ALIVE




Since last Wednesday it's been darn good.  A nice body of fish moved into Casco Bay and they are up on the flats in some pretty shallow stuff.  And we're encountering on a regular bases some groups well over the slot range.  And they are taking poppers, hollows and even got a fish just over 32 on a crab pattern this weekend, without-a-doubt one my favorite way to fish -- sun, incoming tide and feeding nice size Stripe Bass a crab pattern, and wait it's only late May- early June ??? are we not suppose to be fishing big pattern in the rivers??


The local rivers are loaded with bait and where busy with boats this weekend and the reports at the docks are good the guys I see out often are all smiles!!! they have it dialed and are just stoked on the quality of the fishing we are having so early in the season, But guys lets have a little etiquette out there!!! I had a few boats jump us on the flats!! it put down the fish, that’s fine I can move quickly and find other fish. But for the shore anglers they work hard to find a spots and can not get to good water quickly and it's just f@#kin rude to pressure shore angler if you are in a boat!!!!

The reports to the south are very good and many saying the best they have seen in years, we should keep seeing new fish showing and with stable weather outstanding fish. But not always easy the fish have a ton of food and as we saw with the big winds on Sunday afternoon they are still getting tweaked by water temps we had a 3-4 degree drop around the bay and had to work harder for the eats on Monday and today but every flat we went to we spooked laid up fish, Stealth is always good in skinny water.



I got a call from a friend from the Keys Jon Ain, I fish Permit with him often and have learned a ton, why wouldn't I, he has won the Del brown and the March Merkin and is in the top 5 permit anglers in the world with 304 caught on the fly, with so many toury wins I will give him another, the smallest fish of the week, sorry Jon

A few Open Dates for June 2010 pH: 207-671-4330